E-commerce businesses using personalization technologies gain an average increase of 19% in sales.

Personalized email marketing messages get 25% to 37% higher unique open rates and 41% to 51% higher click through rates than non-personalized emails.

So it’s not surprising that many surveys are personalized to some degree. We all want to create surveys that engage the recipients, get high completion rates, and yield valuable information.

Why personalization works

People withstand a huge onslaught of sights, sounds, messages and ideas each day. The human brain has evolved to filter these inputs automatically, so that they don’t overwhelm us, and so that we can pay attention to the things that seem most important.

In essence, our brains are magnificent spam filters.

And personalization is a way to get through that filter. Our brains scan incoming messages ultra-fast to decide what to focus on and what to ignore. When we find something highly relevant to our situation and needs, we pause to consume it.

Even something as simple as mentioning a person’s name or home town in your message can be enough to trigger that relevance reaction. But if you take personalization further and tailor your entire message to the individual, using all the insight at your disposal to understand what they need the most, you hit the relevance jackpot.

Then you can ask them the right questions at the right time, offer them the information they’ll need today, the appointment they forgot to book, or an opportunity to join a group or event they’ll love. They’ll appreciate your thoughtfulness, and the next message they receive from you will get extra attention, because the last message was so rewarding.

Personalization sounds like the key to boosting your surveys’ success. You can automate it, you can scale it, you can do it in real time. No wonder everyone’s obsessed with the idea. Who wouldn’t be?

Next question: why are so many people doing it wrong, and how can you avoid their mistakes?

Personalized irrelevance

You’ve seen it before.

The kind of personalization that screams, "Hi {firstname}, we barely know you!”

It’s in the sales pitch that uses your name five times while making a completely irrelevant offer. It’s in your email inbox (or more likely in your spam folder). It’s in the ads you see when you browse online.

Do you truly personalize the surveys you send to your organization’s customers, employees or other stakeholders? True personalization goes beyond adding the recipient’s name or automatically skipping a survey question based on the answers to previous questions.

You can send a survey with questions personalized for the recipient’s job title, location, gender, known responses, or any number of other factors, but if you’re sending that survey for the wrong reasons, it’ll still miss the mark.

The problem is that personalization doesn’t guarantee relevance. And in some cases, personalization is downright unpleasant for those on the receiving end.

The alienation effect

When advertisements stalk you across the internet, showing up on every site you visit, it’s creepy. When you open your email inbox and every subject line includes your name, it’s creepy. When someone seems to think they know you better than you believe they should… it’s creepy.

When to get personal

If personalizing adds value for the recipient, do it. If it doesn’t add value, skip it. And if you’re not sure, run a quick pilot survey and split test to find out what difference personalization makes for your surveys.

Think of your survey recipients as individuals, not data sources. Find ways to use personalization to show you respect their time, show you care about them, and they’ll share their opinions with you.

Advanced, real-time personalization can be complex, of course. But the data exists, the technology exists to bring it all together, and the expert support exists for businesses to explore personalization strategy today.

So far, interest in personalization is high but few businesses make the most of the opportunity. That’s a gap your organization can step into now, while it’s an advantage rather than the norm.

Personalization isn’t only for surveys and invitations. After you’ve collected more, better data with your personalized surveys, the next step is to integrate all the data and personalize the analysis — this time to suit your business objectives. Then personalize your reports for the recipients, too.

Use personalization to get the insights you need, and act on them to maximize competitive advantage.

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